


Damnatio Memoriae

by Calesvol



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Canon, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 09:55:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14470167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calesvol/pseuds/Calesvol
Summary: He thought he'd lost his king forever. What should've been a curse, for now, was a blessing in disguise.





	Damnatio Memoriae

Warning(s): T, some body horror, violence and mutilation mentions

* * *

It was still dark when all was over. The crowds that had gathered at the grim display that had been, ignited then by torchlight, the sea of despairing, pitying, frightened, and scornful faces long since dispersed. The welling stench of blood and the remaining were those loyal dead being stacked onto carts that would be led away to an enormous pyre on the outskirts of the city. Crows flew overhead, and the sky was dark and devoid of a moon.

 

Peals of thunder rocked the sky, the beginning of rain pouring and fizzling hotly as it evaporated on contact with the ensconced torches. The city pillory was devoid, for now, except for one unusually tall silhouette that stood and stared. With mute tears rolling down his cheeks.

 

Gilgamesh hadn’t been able to do anything. In the procession of those that had meant the most to him, donning black hoods had Gentiana, the Oracle, and Somnus, the newly anointed king, forced Gilgamesh to take part. Even Enkidu and Nadir, Bahamut’s messenger, had grimly taken their places as they’d hoisted Ardyn by his wrists and impaled him with spears until he bled out.

 

Until he died.

 

The Shield gazed upon trembling hands that still felt so dreadfully stained with rusted blood, the execution having been hours ago. And...he’d done nothing. Nothing to save his king. Nothing to sway him from the dark path, instead being a traitor whom had kept it secret until it was too late. The price for it was that Ardyn would be erased, and he would pass on to become Somnus’ Shield.

 

Bitterly did Gilgamesh’s legs crumple and he fell to his knees, in supplication to a god that wouldn’t listen. Silent tears shed glistening in the waning torchlight, gravediggers passing him by as though he were accursed.

 

As the minutes passed and the moon finally revealed itself through the clouds, the changing of the guard effectively silenced all noise and entombed the Shield within his own grief.

 

Yet, he flinched when he felt a hand upon his shoulder, Gilgamesh starting until he glanced back and couldn’t believe what he saw: Ardyn stood before him, pale and ragged and worn, but alive. His gold eyes lost their light still contained a warmth, a light within the darkness. “My king,” Gilgamesh uttered breathlessly, standing and seizing the exhausted man in his arms. “How…?”

 

Ardyn embraced him back around his neck, digits carding through silvery locks. “I do not know how, my friend. All I do is that I am here. That I have not died.” Gilgamesh still seemed in such disbelief, and in the quiet of the night with only the moon as their witness, all he knew was a terrible longing for the man he thought he’d lost.

 

“I thought I’d lost you,” Gilgamesh murmured torridly as they parted just brief enough to rest their brows together, breaths coalescing, real and warm and everything that should’ve belonged to a dream. Scarlet eyes cracked open, desperate to drink in the vision of him like water. “…You have me. By all the gods, you have me, Ardyn.”

 

Here and now, he didn’t want to wonder, or question. All he wanted to do was bask in each other’s arms, even though they would have to leave soon.

 

Ardyn’s lifted those gold eyes that shone like gold ingots in the dark, reflecting in Gilgamesh’s crimson own, chasing away the dark for there to be enough light between them.

 

How this came to be, and what would come of it, he didn’t know.

 

All Gilgamesh did was that he wouldn’t do it without his king.


End file.
